US House panel approves funding for interim nuclear waste storage

US House panel approves funding for interim nuclear waste storage

Washington (Platts)--12May2005


The US House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee Thursday
approved a $29.7-bil spending measure for fiscal 2006 that would fund an
effort to transfer spent nuclear fuel from civilian reactors to an "interim"
storage facility located on an Dept of Energy-owned site. The spending measure
also would also provide DOE with new funds to develop a program for recycling
spent nuclear fuel. 

Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson (Republican-Ohio) said the initiatives are
necessary to ensure the continued availability of "cheap energy" in the US.
"The only way to get cheap energy is to significantly expand the nuclear
industry," Hobson said. "You're not going to do it with fossil fuels or solar
or wind." Hobson would not say where the proposed interim storage facility
would be located, adding only that it won't be in Nevada, the site of DOE
proposed high-level waste repository. The bill would fund Yucca Mountain at
$661-mil, $84-mil above the fiscal 2005 appropriation and $10-mil over DOE's
request.

DOE's share of the $29.7-bil measure is $24.6-bil, $278-mil more than the
department received for FY-05 and $362-mil more than the department requested.
Hobson said the bill would reinstate "not all, but a lot" of the proposed cuts
to oil and natural gas r&d. The measure would provide $1.8-bil for DOE's
energy supply and conservation programs, $8-mil above the current level and
$136-mil above the request. The House Appropriations Committee is slated to
mark up the bill next week.

This story was originally published in Platts Electricity Alert
http://www.electricityalert.platts.com

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